Evening Chronicle comment

Kill your speed to save lives - There have never been as many traffic-calming measures on our roads as there are today and yet still the number of people dying or being seriously injured in motor accidents continues to rise.

There have never been as many traffic-calming measures on our roads as there are today and yet still the number of people dying or being seriously injured in motor accidents continues to rise.

There are those who will blithely dismiss the figures as meaningless. There is more traffic on the roads, they argue, so the number of accidents is bound to go up.

But while the North East accident rate continues to rocket, nationally, the figure has dropped.

The blame lies almost entirely at the door of the motorist.

Yes, we have some poor roads in the region but if all drivers obeyed the speed limits and took more care behind the wheel these would not pose a problem.

There are enough deterrents on our roads to encourage safe motoring, but they are simply being ignored.

Too many motorists treat speed cameras as some kind of game; a minor irritant which temporarily interferes with their high-speed journey. Drink-driving also remains a problem in the North East.

We can double the number of speed cameras, the courts can hit the motorist harder and the driving test could be made tougher but unless motorists get their own house in order then the deaths will continue.

Instead of thinking about putting their foot down after passing a speed camera, motorists should remember the devastation wreaked on the families of road smash families and kill their speed.